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Tag: 50 Shades

Why does it have to be one or the other? Why do we feel the need to hide interest in something so innate? It’s a combination of biology, emotional bonding, and physical pleasure. I think there is an element of something more, if you’re lucky, a spiritual bond that transcends the physical world. Are we really still that hung up on propriety? On the rules of dead societies?

This week I kept mentally dissecting my manuscript. What is left if I take out the Romance? Run of the mill Sci-Fi, with no character growth. What if I take out the Sci-fi, putting it in a modern setting? Typical modern Romance, and there’s millions of them. How about just taking out the erotica, making the relationship more palatable for the average reader? A story with no teeth, no bite, and no flavor.The literary equivalent of ‘Fat Free’. Urg.

This weeks self-help manual, ‘Words Fail Me’ by Patricia T. O’Conner, warns to leave some things to the readers imagination, and I understand that concept, and I agree. I’m trying to leave story crumbs for the reader to follow, hoping they will have to reach for the next page. But, for some reason, the urge to keep the sex scenes in the present, and in an unfiltered, raw form is overwhelming for me.

Patricia also has this to say about humor, after a long quote from Monty Python’s dead-parrot sketch. “If you want to write about humorously about sex or money or the Grim Reaper or some other delicate matter, get out your thesaurus and collect every outrageous euphemism you can find.” And, THAT is what I want readers to find in the sex scenes; love, sex, and laughter. I want to write about the secret moments in a relationship; the moments you can’t really explain to any body. You HAD to be there.

I’m so close to the finished manuscript. Only three chapters to go. Word count to date is 159,179. Daily word count is consistently just above 2,000 per day. I have worked back into a proper writing schedule, after the Holiday madness. Hard editing will be happening by next week, although I will be spitting my time by creative writing on a different story arc, just to keep my hand in.

Editing will be a new experience for me. I have more ‘self-help’ books lined up for that process. I’m sure I’ll be blogging about that, too.

Do you want tame stories? Turn back. Do you want to re-bury Pompeii because the graffiti is too risqué? Piss off. The kink in ’50 Shades’ too much for you? Enjoy the vanilla, and don’t go near Anne Rice’s ‘Sleeping Beauty Trilogy’. (Seriously, that is some… never mind.) And don’t wander too deep in the Amazon e-book forest. (‘A Billionaire Dinosaur Forced Me Gay’ by Hunter Fox? Sure, I’ll give it a read.)

As for me, I’m not flinching. I’m writing the story I’ve been given. You want a peek at a relationship in the raw? Real tears, blood, and soul? The unbearably good stuff you have to keep secret? The things that make you scream in frustration? The dance of spirit reaching out, connecting, then cracking dirty jokes in bed? Life on the edge of a relationship?

I found a map. I’ve strapped on my writing machete, and laced my jungle boots tight.